‘Yes – between his toes they put paper or cotton wool, then set it on fire. When flames reach him, he does the bicycle.’

Sasha whirled his hands round in imitation, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

‘No laughing!’ he said indignantly. ‘It is very bad. Officers terrorise soldiers – beat them, shoot them—’

‘Not really shoot them?’

‘Certainly! Many men are shot dead by own officers. Absolutely incredible.’

‘Do people get fined?’ I asked.

‘Fined?’ Sasha seemed astonished. ‘How can they be fined? They have no so big money. And in any case, it would be very dangerous for commander to punish kontraktnik, a prafyessional soldier, in this way. Such persons do not like to pay. Easier just to kill officer with shooting.’

‘What about special forces? They must be better.’

‘Many, many special forces. Every ministry has special force. Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Federal Security . . .’

‘So who’s taking on the Mafia?’

‘Good question. Under whose jurisdiction is situation going? These too many bodies – in the past they have no joint policy. But now we have new initiative – result of your Prime Minister’s visit to President Yeltsin last year. From this has come new agreement. Yeltsin has persuaded Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Interior to create Tiger Force, specially to combat Mafia operations.’

‘So who are the guys we’ll be training?’

‘All kontraktniks. That means prafyessional soldiers with contracts – not conscripts. At least two years in the army. All officers, from junior lieutenant to captain. Good types, I hope.’

‘Where do they come from?’

‘From all different special forces. From Spetznaz, from Omon, from Alpha, from Vympel . . .’

I saw him stifle a yawn.

‘Come on,’ I told him. ‘Time you got your head down. Tomorrow’s a full training day. You can meet the guys and tell us what to do.’

‘Khorosho! Zheordie – let me say thank you for very kind reception. Also for clothings.’

‘It’s a pleasure.’

One amusing twist that I didn’t yet explain to Sasha was that our own headquarters were known in the Regiment as the Kremlin. Valentina had impressed on us that the word simply means ‘citadel’, but we were chuffed to think that, for the first time in history, our own little Kremlin was about to join forces with its Big Brother in Moscow.

Chapter Three

THREE